Quotes About Influence

The class focused on US history since the Civil War, but at every opportunity Mr. Hill guided them to the present, linking what had happened a hundred years ago to their current lives. They'd set off down one road at the beginning of class and it always led back to their doorsteps. Mr.

Perhaps if he'd spent more time in the crucible of the county jail, Elwood would have known that it is best not to interfere in other people's violence, no matter the underlying facts of the incident.

If you had the power to make people do what you wanted and never exercised it, what was the point of having it?

David Bowie is in every book, and I always put on Purple Rain and Daydream Nation when I write the final pages; so thanks to him and Prince and Sonic Youth.

Archimedes, one of his first encyclopedia finds. Violence is the only lever big enough to move the world.

It was her grandmother talking that Sunday evening when Caesar approached Cora about the underground railroad, and she said no. Three weeks later she said yes. This time it was her mother talking.

Taken individually, the link was not much. But in concert with its fellows, a mighty iron that subjugated millions despite its weakness.

They were the paper of record, which meant they were in the business of protecting the system

Crossing a single street transformed the way people talked, determined the size and condition of the homes, the dimension and character of the dreams. In

High-minded idiocy pitted against the power of coin.

Also, Archimedes, one of his first encyclopedia finds. Violence is the only lever big enough to move the world.

the shadow of the master, the reminder that

Anyone can start a religion. They just need the need of others.

Like the moon, you're only good and visible a few days a month. Exerting influence, pulling up whitecaps. The rest of time falling away, cut up into parts and nobody knows where you are.

That was the sort of everyday love I had to learn to contend with: if you grow up with it, it's hard to think you'll ever match it. I used to think it was difficult for children of folks who really loved each other, hard to get out from under that skin because sometimes it's just so comfortable you don't want to have to develop your own.

What he liked about his brother, he said, is that he made people become what they didn't think they could become. He twisted something in their hearts. Gave them new places to go. Even dead, he'd still do that. His brother believed that the space for God was one of the last great frontiers: men and women could do all sorts of things but the real mystery would always lie in a different beyond. He would just fling the ashes and let them settle where they wanted.

We get our voice from the voices of others. Read promiscuously. Imitate, copy, but become your own voice.

Fear makes money, and it makes laws, and it takes land, and it builds settlements, and fear likes to keep everyone silent.

And what is it we give our children anyway, except the ability to not become us?

Wir stolpern dahin, tragen ein wenig Geräusch in die Stille und wirken in anderen fort.

Stories matter. They send our kids to war. They open up our pockets. They break our hearts.

Words can be like tiny doses of arsenic: they are swallowed unnoticed, appear to have no effect, and then after a little time the toxic reaction sets in after all.

Worte können sein wie winzige Arsendosen: sie werden unbemerkt verschluckt, sie scheinen keine Wirkung zu tun, und nach einiger Zeit ist die Giftwirkung doch da.

Are you trying to bribe me?" "Only if it works